Vacuum sintering of Tb3Al5O12 transparent ceramics with combined TEOS+MgO sintering aids

Tb3Al5O12 (TAG) transparent ceramics were fabricated by solid state reaction and vacuum sintering using ethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) combined with different quantities of MgO as the sintering aids. All the samples showed high transparency and the XRD results presented no secondary phase. The experimental results showed that TEOS combined with MgO can improve the optical properties and the highest optical transmittance was above 80% in the region of 550–1500 nm. The optimal amount of MgO was 0.1 wt% and the corresponding sample exhibited nearly pore-free and uniform-grain-size microstructure.